


New Dawn

by Cynder2013



Series: Mostly Unrelated PJO Fusion Fics [2]
Category: Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: After Daisy Jones & The Six Breaks Up, Alternate Universe - 1980s, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, F/M, Gen, Music, Oral History, PJO Easter Eggs, Recreational Drug Use, Sex is mentioned, Songwriting, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:07:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23397499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynder2013/pseuds/Cynder2013
Summary: Hundreds of bands tried to fill the void Daisy Jones & The Six left behind. This is one of them.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Luke Castellan/Thalia Grace
Series: Mostly Unrelated PJO Fusion Fics [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682968
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	New Dawn

_Of all the bands that rose to prominence after the breakup of Daisy Jones & The Six, perhaps the most memorable is New Dawn, which formed as a Daisy Jones & The Six tribute band in August 1979 before being signed by DOA Records in June 1980. _

PERCY JACKSON ( _lead singer, New Dawn_ ): I idolized Daisy Jones & The Six. When they broke up, I was devastated. I just spent a whole day listening to _Aurora_ over and over again.

ANNABETH CHASE ( _keyboardist, New Dawn_ ): I wanted to be Daisy Jones. Every girl wanted to be Daisy Jones.

PERCY: I must have listened to it a hundred times, and then I fell asleep. When I woke up I thought, “Why don’t I start a band?”

JASON GRACE ( _lead guitar, New Dawn_ ): The band was Percy’s idea. He called at one in the morning and was like, “I’m starting a band. You in?”

PERCY: Jason said, “Hell yeah!” so I knew it was a good idea.

JASON: It was one in the morning. It could have been a terrible idea and I still would have said yes. It was one in the morning, man.

THALIA CASTELLAN ( _drummer, New Dawn_ ): So, Percy starts putting the band together at midnight on a Saturday. He calls the cousins and his girlfriend and some friends, and we all get to his place at noon and we realize that none of us can play an instrument.

ANNABETH: I took piano lessons when I was a kid, and that was the most musical experience we had out of the seven of us.

LEO VALDEZ ( _bassist, New Dawn_ ): It was hilarious.

NICO DI ANGELO ( _rhythm guitarist, New Dawn_ ): It was embarrassing.

PIPER MCLEAN ( _singer, New Dawn_ ): I could sing, Annabeth could read music, it wasn’t too bad.

PERCY: We spent the rest of that summer learning how to be a band.

JASON: We taught ourselves how to play in Percy’s garage. We sounded pretty awful, most of the time.

NICO: We sounded terrible.

JASON: Uncle H, Nico’s dad, he lent us the instruments.

LEO: [Laughs] I stole my brother’s bass guitar. He was so mad.

ANNABETH: We didn’t start to sound like a band until August. It helped that we practiced every day.

THALIA: I hated practicing every day, but it was worth it.

PIPER: It was so worth it.

NICO: It wasn’t like any of us had jobs. We had the time.

* * *

PERCY: The first song that we played was “Aurora”.

JASON: When we got through “Young Stars” without making any mistakes, Percy was so happy.

LEO: I think Percy actually cried when we got “Impossible Woman” right.

PERCY: I didn’t cry or anything, but we sounded good.

NICO: We could have been better.

PIPER: I started talking people into letting us play for them. Bars, clubs, my sister’s wedding, everyone wanted a band who’d play Daisy Jones & The Six, and we played nothing but Daisy Jones & The Six.

ANNABETH: The first time we played in public was at Charles and Silena’s wedding.

THALIA: Five minutes before we’re supposed to start playing, we realize that we don’t have a name.

PERCY: We’d been a band for four months and we didn’t have a name. I don’t know how. I guess it just kind of slipped everyone’s mind.

NICO: We’d been trying out names for months and we couldn’t agree on one.

LEO: We were just about to go on stage when Percy turned around and said, “We’re New Dawn.”

ANNABETH: We had a vote and it was six to one for New Dawn.

JASON: Percy liked the name because, you know, “aurora” is “dawn” and we were mostly playing songs from _Aurora_.

LEO: I wanted us to be the Argonauts Two, but Percy was the lead singer so I guess it didn’t really make sense. And there were seven of us.

PERCY: Piper came up with it. I thought it was a good name.

PIPER: The name was Annabeth’s idea. She made us vote on it. The only other option was something like Happy the Dragon. It was probably Leo’s idea.

ANNABETH: And then we went out and we played, and we were good.

PIPER: We were really good. Silena loved it.

NICO: It was okay.

PERCY: We sang “Honeycomb” at the wedding and the groom—big guy, totally ripped—he started crying. I kind of just looked away and pretended it wasn’t happening.

PIPER: I think Charles might have cried.

PERCY: You don’t let a guy like that know that you know he’s crying. It’s not polite.

* * *

JASON: I wanted us to write our own songs.

LEO: It was Annabeth’s idea to start writing our own music.

PERCY: Annabeth and I wrote our first song in January, but we didn’t show it to the rest of the band until March.

JASON: Percy wanted to keep us a Daisy Jones & The Six tribute band, but I said, “We can’t play other people’s music forever.” We had potential.

ANNABETH: Percy and I wrote “Son of the Sea” in January 1980. It’s about coming home, and leaving home, but mostly coming home.

PERCY: “Take him far away/never will learn/son of the sea/always returns/belongs to the sea/always returns” those are my lyrics. Any meaning they have is all Annabeth. I just liked the way they sound.

THALIA: Percy and Annabeth come to practice and they have this song. It’s a great song.

NICO: Everyone could see “Son of the Sea” was about Percy. He loves the ocean. He can’t surf though.

JASON: Percy wrote a song about himself.

THALIA: It’s about Percy, but Billy Dunne wrote every song about his wife. If she’d been in The Six too, I bet they’d have songs about Billy.

PIPER: Jason wanted us to write something after “Son of the Sea” and we started tossing ideas around.

JASON: “Kaleidoscope” was my song.

PIPER: “Impossible rainbow/spinning wild/my pretty baby with kaleidoscope eyes.”

JASON: Well, actually, it was Piper’s song.

PIPER: We weren’t trying to copy the Beatles, it just sort of happened.

JASON: Actually...

NICO: “Kaleidoscope” is about Piper. 

LEO: “Kaleidoscope” is definitely about Piper.

THALIA: Jason is in love with Piper and he writes a song about it.

JASON: We started dating after we wrote that.

LEO: It was like popcorn after that. We’d show up to practice and Percy and Annabeth would have a new song, and then Jason and Piper would have two songs, and then Percy and Annabeth would have three songs. Even Nico wrote some stuff.

NICO: I wrote “Skeletal Butterflies” and “River of Souls”...which was not my best decision.

LEO: Before we knew it, we had a freaking album.

THALIA: We have enough songs for an album; we just have to record one.

* * *

ANNABETH: Nico’s dad owned DOA Records, but we got in on our own merit.

PERCY: Having Uncle H at DOA was helpful but not helpful, if you know what I mean.

NICO: My dad owning DOA had nothing to do with us getting our record deal. You don’t get a deal if you don’t impress Charon. We impressed Charon.

CHARON STEELE ( _producer, DOA Records_ ): I knew that New Dawn was going to be big the second they started playing that song with the cymbals. It didn’t matter that they were the boss’s family. That song, what is called? “Mortal Point” is everything you want from a rock band after Daisy Jones & The Six. Everything.

PERCY: Recording _Mortal Point_ took a lot less time than our other albums did. I still don’t know why.

THALIA: Daisy Jones & The Six have been gone for a year. Charon wants our first album out quickly, before anyone forgets about them. Like anyone could ever forget Daisy Jones & The Six.

PERCY: But it’s good. _Mortal Point_ is good.

LEO: I think it was some of our best work.

JASON: We sounded great in _Mortal Point_.

NICO: I didn’t hate the final product.

ANNABETH: _Mortal Point_ isn’t perfect. There’s a lot that we could have done better. For our first album though? It’s pretty good.

PIPER: That cover though...

JASON: I hate that cover.

ANNABETH: Shooting that cover was...awkward.

LEO: The album cover is Jason’s abs.

THALIA: So, Jason is shirtless and Annabeth is standing behind him pressed right up against his back holding this dagger with both hands like she’s going to slide it into his heart.

PERCY: I’m surprised Annabeth didn’t actually stab him.

PIPER: I wanted to stab the photographer.

ANNABETH: I was very uncomfortable.

LEO: It’s a great cover.

PERCY: And then “Skeletal Butterflies” topped the charts.

ANNABETH: [Sighs] “Skeletal Butterflies”...

PERCY: People loved that song, and when it got out that Nico was the one who wrote it, well...

LEO: All the ladies loved Nico.

PERCY: He got swarmed by girls.

NICO: I don’t want to talk about that.

PIPER: “Lovely blonde curls/big blue eyes/you give me skeletal butterflies” it’s about Annabeth.

ANNABETH: Everyone thought it was about me.

PERCY: “Skeletal Butterflies” isn’t about Annabeth.

JASON: Trust me, it’s not about Annabeth.

THALIA: It’s about an unrequited love. No, it’s not about Annabeth.

LEO: I always thought it was about Annabeth. She used to wear these blue contacts, you know? Daisy Blue, when she could get them.

NICO: Yes, the song was about someone. No, I won’t tell you who.

* * *

PERCY: Our first tour...We were all high on that tour.

ANNABETH: Ninety percent of the time, at least three of us were high.

THALIA: We get caught up in the lifestyle.

PIPER: Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.

LUKE CASTELLAN ( _manager, New Dawn_ ): I worried about them. They were still kids, you know? Nico was a year out of high school. I’d walk into Percy’s room and the girls would be doing lines and the boys would be smoking or drinking, and Nico would be trying to get them to stop so they’d be sober enough for sound check. I thought we’d finish the tour and I’d have six people to get into rehab and a new guitarist to find because Nico decided to become an accountant.

JASON: Thalia and I, we never touched a drink. Our mom was an alcoholic, it was bad. Anything else was fair game though.

ANNABETH: I’m surprised we’re all still alive after what we did back then.

PERCY: It was a good tour though. Nico sort of forced us to never do anything before we played and mostly we stuck to that, so we sounded good. Nico was a lifesaver on that tour.

NICO: I was the only one who was always sober. Someone had to be counted on to know what date it was and where the hell we needed to be.

LEO: I named the table in one of my hotel rooms on that tour. I think I called him Buford.

* * *

PERCY: We released four more albums. _Hellhound_ , _Silk and Shield_ , _Lightning Horse_ , and _Last Woman Standing_.

ANNABETH: _Hellhound_ is about drugs. _Silk and Shield_ is about sex. _Lightning Horse_ is about family. _Last Woman Standing_ is about hope.

THALIA: We keep making music, and I marry the love of my life.

ANNABETH: Thalia got pregnant in the middle of writing _Lightning Horse_. We all sobered up real fast.

LEO: We got a lot more serious. No bad influences allowed for Baby Castellan.

PERCY: _Lightning Horse_ is definitely our best work.

LUKE: Thalia’s water broke while they were recording “Preserve or Raze” and then she was in labour for twelve hours. Scariest twelve hours of my life.

JASON: I became an uncle while we were recording _Lightning Horse_ , so that album’s really special to me. But I’ve got a soft spot for the cover of _Last Woman Standing_.

PERCY: _Last Woman Standing_ has the best cover.

JASON: Bianca’s on that cover. She was two years old and she was running everywhere, so Thalia’s holding one of her hands and Annabeth is holding the other, and Piper is standing between them.

ANNABETH: Bianca tried to run out into the desert during the photo shoot for _Last Woman Standing_ , and that ended up being the cover. It’s a good cover.

LEO: It was nice, having Bianca running around, but it got distracting too. One time she even ran out on stage during a show. The audience loved it, but we totally forgot what song we were playing.

NICO: I wrote a song for each of our other albums. You guess which ones.

PIPER: We never really broke up. We’re still friends, we just don’t work together twenty-four seven anymore.

PERCY: We were a band. We did good. What else can I say?

THALIA: We fucking rock.


End file.
